100-Year-Old WWII Veteran Shares His Story In Powerful New Country Song
Don Graves’ Ballad Is A Celebration Of The Greatest Generation
For many years now, retired Corporal Don Graves has been singing patriotic songs at concerts and sporting events, but now, at 100 years old, he has written a song of his own.
Signing his record deal with BMI in May, country stars John Rich and Lee Greenwood were enlisted to sing Graves’ song, titled “The Sand of Iwo Jima.”
Graves has a unique distinction as a living survivor of the Battle of Iwo Jima, serving as a flamethrower operator in the famed World War II battle which foreshadowed the Allied victory in the Pacific.
His song tells some of his story, and now everyone can hear it.
Hear Don Graves’ Story In Song
Shared on YouTube by one of the song’s cowriters, Frank Myers, “The Sand of Iwo Jima” is set to a video of the song being recorded at Starstruck Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.
We see Graves signing his record deal contract and speaking with some local press, but we also see the recording process, with John Rich and Lee Greenwood singing in the booth.
“Jason Sever and I wrote this song with him and for his 100th birthday he was brought to Nashville to record it,” Myers wrote on YouTube. “A special thank you to John Rich and Lee Greenwood for surprising him that day and singing the song! May God bless Don Graves and all our warriors who have fought for freedom around the world for all of us.”
Listen to the song, here:
In the song, a picture of life leading up to the song’s titular battle is painted.
Describing the Japanese volcanic island of Iwo Jima as “a patch of dirt out in the ocean that Roosevelt had to have,” John Rich can be heard singing of the bloodshed that island would see on February 19, 1945. “We lost 7,000 men there, so six could raise that flag.”
The chorus proudly declares:
“We fought for our freedom, we fought for the flag, we fought for each other, and we had each other’s backs. I still pray for my brothers that made that sacrifice on the sand of Iwo Jima in 1945.”
Then, Lee Greenwood, with his knack for communicating stories through song, sings about the world Graves had grown up in before leaving for war. Even with the Great Depression, Graves’ song sings of how that struggle made him and his peers from the greatest generation stronger.
